Campus Employees Strive to Meet Needs of Veterans

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 10, 2012) — The University of Kentucky hosted a day-long intensive training program designed to prepare university employees to better meet the mental and behavioral health needs of armed services members and veterans on campus, on Wednesday, Aug. 8.

"We must honor our student veterans," said UK President Eli Capilouto, who delivered the opening remarks. "We need to make sure that they have the resources and the support that they need to succeed." 

The program, titled "Service Members and Veterans on Campus: A University Counseling Center Core Competency Program," will be presented by the Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP), an innovative Department of Defense psychology training consortium. About 150-200 participants are expected from UK and other institutions of higher learning from across Kentucky.

Nationally, student veterans are not succeeding at the same rate as their counterparts, said Anthony Dotson, UK Veterans Resource Center coordinator.

"We are very proud to partner with CDP to offer this program in an effort to address some of those underlying causes," Dotson said. 

The morning program focused on the culture and experience of service members on campus, the deployment cycle and its impact on students, reintegration on campus, and an introduction to outreach efforts. The afternoon program began with a large-group outreach exercise, followed by a session on clinic conceptualizations, with a workshop component. The program concluded with an overview of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on campus, including introductions to prolonged exposure therapy (PE) and cognitive processing therapy (CPT).